1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the process in which businesses make inquiries of institutions of higher education such as, colleges, universities, junior colleges, technical colleges and community colleges, for the purpose of verifying academic credentials of past students and graduates or the present enrollment status of current students.
2. Description of the Prior Art
More specifically, this invention pertains to information systems and networks which allow for efficient on-line access to educational records at many Institutions (also referred to herein as “schools”) as an alternative to the current manually intensive methods of telephone inquiries and printed forms.
As a standard course of business, employers, insurance companies, credit card issuers, recruiting firms and background screening firms routinely contact educational institutions for the purpose of verifying academic records relating to individuals who have applied for employment, credit or insurance benefits. The requested information is a necessary component to credit underwriting and claims processing functions with credit card issuers and insurance companies. For employers, the process of verification is a critical component of evaluating the qualifications and integrity of the employment candidate. Failure to verify can often increase a company's exposure to liability and malpractice litigation. From a business standpoint, this process of verification is usually considered slow and expensive. Moreover, businesses are poorly equipped to locate universities that have esoteric names and/or do not have a clear affiliation with a state or well-known city. The process of “finding” an Institution may involve repeated calls to directory assistance. Once the institution is located, the business must contend with vacation schedules and office hours that do not necessarily correspond with generally accepted business hours.
It is estimated that educational institutions in the United States receive more than 30,000 requests for educational record information each working day and that this number is continually increasing. These “verification” requests are typically made over the telephone where the identity of the requester or the validity of the request is rarely verified. In fact, records of these requests are rarely kept due to the manually intensive nature of this process. In a small number of cases, the requests are made in writing for the Institution to complete and return. As a result of escalating costs associated with verification requests, University Registrars are faced with the task of responding to the escalating volume of requests with limited staff resources. Consequently, response time at most schools is limited by staff availability. In some cases, Institutions simply refuse to respond to requests, much to the detriment of current students and graduates.
Current regulations known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) protect the educational records of all graduates and students in the United States. In addition to setting guidelines for the handling and maintenance of individual educational records, FERPA defines which elements of a student's educational records are considered “directory information” (public) and which elements are considered “personally identifiable” (private). The present invention assists universities and businesses in complying with FERPA in that no “personally identifiable” information is ever disseminated. Moreover, the on-line degree and current enrollment verification system enhances institutional compliance with FERPA by providing a permanent record of all such inquiries.
What is needed in the marketplace, is a single entity, which not only provides businesses with easily accessible, low-cost and accurate access to the educational records of individuals who are applying for services or employment, but which also supplies written confirmation of the transaction in a timely manner. Further, Institutions of Higher Education need a means for providing responses to inquiries more rapidly, accurately and in compliance with FERPA without using increasingly scarce human resources to do so. Tracking degree verification inquiries will benefit the general business practices of Institutions by providing student lending officers and career development officers with improved data on demographic information for graduates.
As a result of these noted deficiencies in the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an on-line degree and current enrollment verification system.